‘Mission: Impossible 4’ Clip: Catfight!

When your upcoming movie is sitting on uncertain ground – as Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocolarguably is – sometimes you have to bring out the big guns in order to help bait those filmgoers swimming through the crowded sea of holiday season movies.

Well, the Paramount marketing team is indeed reaching for their big guns (again) with this latest Ghost Protocol clip, which features the two lovely ladies of the cast – Paula Patton (Mirrors) and Léa Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds) – engaged in a spy-on-spy catfight.

Previous Mission: Impossible 4 clips and featurettes have revealed some of the film’s big set pieces – including Tom Cruise scaling the world’s tallest building. While big stunts and witty banter between characters are suitable lures to attract a potential ticket buyer, it’s hard to top the allure of two beautiful women laying the smackdown on one another (if my experience watching WWE has been any kind of indication).

Check out a portion of the Patton vs. Seydoux free-for-all in the Mission: Impossible– Ghost Protocol clip below:

If you’re wondering how this lady brawl fits into the overall scheme of the movie (which involves Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) IMF team beign framed for a terrorist act), you should check out the Ghost Protocol preview footage review that was posted by our own Roth Cornet awhile back. Hint: it involves a fairly intricate con that culminates in Cruise’s building-scaling hijinks.

Director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) seems to have – at the very least – constructed a light, fun, popcorn action flick that will be competent, if not original or thrilling. Given the Pixar alum’s impressive track record, some fans are likely expecting more from Bird, but as this is his first foray into big-budget live-action fare, expectations should probably be tempered accordingly.

On the other hand, at this point, a lot of people would probably be happy just getting a competent Mission:Impossible film.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol will be in theaters on December 21, 2011; IMAX prints of the movie will start showing in theaters on December 16th (with that Dark Knight Rises prologue attached!).